askchapo

What sites could I use? Torrenting not ideal. I'm not even sure what a torrent is.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization recently put out this article, arguing that the United States isn't a settler-colony and it's rubbing me the wrong way.

The article makes some assertions and assumptions that I have some thoughts about, and I'd love to hear y'alls as well.

[Proponents of the US Settler colony theory say that] The United States remains today a settler-colonial state. People of European descent, regardless of their actual class position, are settlers, and are seen as continuing to benefit from and perpetuate a colonial system. In other words, the people of the United States are divided into two camps, with the colonized in one camp, and the settlers in the other. Some even go so far as to say that this makes up the principal contradiction in the U.S. This is furthermore viewed as a fundamentally antagonistic contradiction

I don't know if this is an accurate description of the US Settler-colony theory. All settler and colonized populations, be they in Israel, Canada, South Africa, etc. Have class distinctions within them that ought to be considered. Saying there's a settler population isn't mutually exclusive with class analysis.

This ought to be contrasted with the Marxist-Leninist view, which sees the United States as an advanced imperialist country. Again, we see a division of U.S. society into two camps. On the one hand there is the camp of the capitalists, and on the other the oppressed and exploited masses of workers and oppressed nationalities. The principal contradiction is therefore between the capitalist class on the one hand, and the multinational working class and its allies on the other, particularly the oppressed nations. 

OK? I don't necessarily disagree, but how does this contradict the notion that the US is a settler-colony? It contradicts the version of that idea given earlier, but I think that's a strawman. Or at least a case of a narrow representation of a wider trend.

The article goes on to describe American history, talks at some length about the class makeup of the settlers. The implication seems to be that this varied class makeup makes them not a single class of "Settlers™". But then goes on to say that the early US was characterized by a:

transitional settler-colonial period

But that this period ended... At some point.

The article also seems to conflate the concept of a Settler-colony and colonies written large.

The United States is the greatest imperialist power in the world. It isn’t a colony. Like Tsarist Russia prior to the Bolshevik Revolution, it is a “prison house of nations.”

Within the borders of the U.S. there are oppressed nations. What is an oppressed nation? As Stalin defines it in Marxism and the National Question, “A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture.” These oppressed nations are nations without states. They don’t govern themselves. The oppressed nations in the U.S. are the African American nation, with its homeland in the Black Belt South, the Chicano nation in the Southwest, and the Hawaiian nation.

So we've finally named some oppressed nations. I don't know why Hawaii is here, but otherwise this is fine. It's how the other colonized/oppressed people's in the US are handled that confuses me

To be perfectly clear, it is important to note that oppressed nations are not the same thing as colonies. The correct demand for a colony is immediate independence. This is the demand we must put forward regarding Puerto Rico and other colonies, where basic democratic rights are denied and which are merely objects of plunder.

The argument about a colony requiring independence is compelling. But why is Hawaii not included with Puerto Rico? Why does one island nation stolen by the US empire get independence, and the other doesn't? There's no fleshed out analysis on that.

Also, an overseas colony and a settler-colony are different.

The demands of indigenous peoples deserve special consideration and are distinct: full sovereignty and national development of indigenous peoples, and the protection of their cultures, languages and traditions.

I think this is the first mention of indigenous peoples, and we're 2/3 of the way through the article.

WHY ARE THEY DISTINCT? HM? COULD IT BE THAT THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO THE PROCESS OF SETTLER COLONIALISM MEDIATES THEIR INTERACTIONS WITH THE BOURGEOIS STATE?

The U.S. isn’t an apartheid system, like “Israel” or “Rhodesia” for example. The horrific system of Jim Crow segregation that followed the betrayal of Reconstruction was itself uprooted by the Black liberation movement. While national oppression remains, de jure segregation no longer exists. The working class, as a result of its historical development, is therefore multinational in character.

.... So you know we shoved indigenous people onto reservations and continue to systematically exclude them from modern American life. South Africa was pushing Africans onto reservations, and Israel is de-facto doing the same thing to Palestinians.... Because they're replacing the native population with a settler one...

De Jure Segregation being over means nothing in terms of the actual material conditions of oppressed nations in the US.

I could go on. But the article just seems poorly thought out. Despite supposedly refuting the idea that the US is a settler-colony, it spends so little time actually talking about indigenous peoples.

Am I onto something? Is the analysis of this article missing the mark? Or am I a petty-bourgeois radical, like the article suggests?

I'm honestly a little bit hesitant to ask this because don't wanna seem like I'm stepping on toes.

So I've been doing some thinking stuff over the last few weeks/months and am starting to question shit.

I've always been cis male presenting and for the most part it's all I've really known, but I'm not in the least bit masculine. Back in the early 00s, the term metro-sexual was a thing and I sort of identified with that but like, meh? Idk. Now that just feels chauvinistic for some reason.

Recently I've been thinking about my own gender identity and although I present as a male, I honestly don't really care. I also have that autism(or is it just ND?) thing where I feel like a being or entity in a human suit basically. Like my inner self is controlling the body that people see me as, which is, of course male presenting.

I've been looking a bit into agender and demigender and hit some of the checkboxes but not really all, but I also don't really know another term for essentially "male body but don't care". A reddit search brought up "gender apathy" and that's a kind of maybe I guess.

The only other conclusion is that I am just cis, but fully aware of it maybe? Like I have a way wider understanding of gender and even sexuality than I did a decade ago so maybe I'm just cis and just not toxic about it? I'm just "woke" maybe?

I guess call this a journal-post but def open for discussion. I'm just going through some heavy mental exploration. I'm not sure if there is even a question here. Just me being confused.

I guess a question could be: how do you know? How do you know where you land on the gender spectrum? Or am I just making a mountain out of a molehill?

I am a climate scientist and geologist and think that climate, geology, and geography are incredibly interesting fields that people deserve to know more about. If you have any questions that you’ve sat with for a while, are just curious, want to know more about future or past scenarios, or even have worldbuilding questions, feel free to ask!

The other day my phone wasn't charging for some reason and I had it off all day. I felt better and got more done and spent time with my family. No joke.

All I use it for is scrolling reddit, scrolling hexbear, listening to podcasts, and occasionally getting a text or phone call. Scrolling reddit in partucular is bad because i pretty much hate everything i see there, I dont know whats wrong with me. I can't just get rid of it because I like podcasts and need to get phone calls.

What do?

It's at Soundcloud and it happens when you click the waveform at the top.

https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/episode-69-angela-strawberry-feat-james-adomian-1217

I've been sorta addicted to Hexbear and want to cut down but idk if I can find a decent alternative to the news updates I get here. What can I do?

For me no but it is a guideline for how I see and construct/conduct all facets of my identity

To not have the question of who's to blame hanging over every situation.

I grew up in a very abusive household. Where the question of "who's to dole out punishment on" was at the end of nearly every little situation. Looking back, it was excuses for authority figures to get violent over nonsense "blame/deserve/not deserve" rules. The liberal ideology of "This is just the way it is, and if it isn't, then it's X's fault and they deserve violence. Don't think about it, you dirty thinker. Critique of this system deserves violence." This zero thought produced harmful black and white thinking in me. It also led me to thinking I deserved endless violence and "that's just the way it is." They were always holding back being violent all the time or they let themselves go for it under what was actually their self-excusing system.

A good parent should teach you to ask "who/what caused this" and interrogate everything you can.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh,_Mary!

The show is a comedic spoof of the lives of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln. The show is set in the days leading up to Lincoln's assassination, which occurred while he and Mary were watching Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre. The show portrays Mary as someone who longs to live a life away from politics and be a cabaret performer, while Lincoln uses her as a beard to hide his sexuality, and is often away from home dealing with the issues of the Civil War, leaving her alone in the White House.

wondering if anyone had opinions on this, is it worth a trip to NYC and the ticket price?

and what do you think about the news that the lead and creator is being replaced by a different actor next month?

https://variety.com/2024/legit/news/betty-gilpin-oh-mary-broadway-cole-escola-1236233459/

If you're gonna do a coup, go through with it. Don't do a Prigozhin. You're probably gonna end up being killed or arrested, so you may as well go full on.

These people are such dummies. Completely hollow headed.

I’m a dev and have not heard good things but I’m hoping the negative reputation is an exaggeration.

There's supposed to be a big old alien war, but I gotta go to work so what yall planning to do?

So I'm pretty lucky, I've had this laptop since 2018 and it's still working pretty well and pretty high speed even though I don't clean up my hard drive at all and stopped running antivirus because my pirated copy of Emsisoft (was the best anti-virus a few years ago, no idea how if fares now). If you can get one used and want a light laptop, these things are fantastic. The slimmest and lightest laptop I knew back then with both upgradable RAM and SSD. If I ever have to buy a "new" laptop, I'll probably just get a used/refurbished LG gram, I absolutely love this thing.

However, recently, I tried just shoving it back in there, but that metal tab on the back doesn't seem to have any way of fitting inside of the hinge casing. A couple screws fell out with it though (specifically the one under the rubber foot that is by the hinge), so I hypothesize that those screws were keeping this piece that moves with the hinge locked into place inside the laptop. I want to get the hinge back in its casing, but didn't have a small enough screwdriver when the screws fell out so they're just lost now because it's been at least a month of this. I want to just order more screws and try to get this fixed, but have no idea where to start because I can't even find anything on this issue. I'm pretty knowledgeable, but don't want to start just fucking around with it without just asking if anybody knows anything about it. I still have to order a super small screwdriver for it anyways because they were too small for my glasses repair kit. At least they were phillipshead and not torx or something stupid like that

I'm looking for a Christmas present - something that goes over the British occupation, colonialism, the potato famine etc etc, and ideally something from a Marxist / historical materialist perspective.

Thanks comrades

I'm going for a klezmer festival but I really like dancing and night life as a whole. I'll be there for one Saturday night and am looking for recommendations of sites to see and places to check out. My budget is about $200 for all food, entertainment, shopping and whatnot but I like to walk!

The pressure of the ongoing long train of personal hypocrisy is mounting towards a zenith. Standing up for what's right means going against the grain when this is necessary, and going against the grain when necessary means making a scene when this is necessary. Yet in too many situations where all due considerations call for making a scene, I fail to do so, leaving me feeling disgusted with myself, like a servile lackey who cannot withstand even the slightest bit of outside pressure. I worry what will happen, then, when the mounting pressure of my hypocrisy does meet its zenith, and in any case this situation is completely unsustainable and needs to be ended as soon as possible for my own sake and for the sake of all the creatures of the Earth.

Yet I still feel completely lost as to how to actually address this fatal character flaw, after trying to solve it for years, and so I would like anyone's advice. Others' advice probably won't be of much help, but it's still probably better than nothing.

Been trying to use this delivery service for my meds and the people never show up and I have to pick up my meds at the store the next day or they're super late, sometimes 2-3 hours late.

Wondering if it's just my area or what.